PHILADELPHIA - Columbia fought valiantly for 40 minutes and then for another five minutes. But Penn converted a textbook out of bounds play with 1.5 seconds left to break a 59-59 tie when Fran Dougherty caught a perfect pass from Miles Cartwright near the rim to give the Quakers a two-point lead and the 61-59 victory.

Although Penn scored the first 10 points of the game, Columbia battled back to take a 24-21 halftime lead behind eight points from Meiko Lyles and seven points by Alex Rosenberg.

The Lions built a 43-38 lead with 8:56 to go on two free throws by Lyles but Penn's Steve Rennard came back to bury a three-pointer, his first of three triples in the final eight minutes, to bring Penn within two.

Rennard's three sparked a 7-0 Penn run that gave the Quakers a 45-43 advantage with 5:38 left. Rosenberg answered with a three ball that put the Lions back in front, 46-45.

With Columbia ahead by a point, Rennard buried his third trey of the half with 1:30 left to give Penn a 53-51 lead. On the Lions' next possession, Mark Cisco grabbed a big offensive rebound in traffic and was fouled on the putback attempt with less than a minute to go. Cisco missed the first, but made the second and Penn led 53-52.

Cisco got redemption, rebounding a Penn miss at the other end. After he was fouled under the Columbia hoop, Cisco made both ends of a one-and-one opportunity to put the Lions back in front, 54-53 with the shot clock turned off and 31 seconds to go.

The ball was in Zack Rosen's hands with the clock winding down and after the Lions played strong perimeter defense, Rosen drove to the hoop and drew a foul with 2.2 seconds left. His first attempt was off but Rosen drained the second and the game headed to overtime.

Penn quickly took a 59-54 lead on two free throws and a contested three-pointer by Miles Cartwright with the shot clock expiring. Chris Crockett followed by nailing a contested three of his own, making it a 59-57 game.

Penn had three chances to pad its lead on its next possession after corraling two offensive rebounds but could not convert and the Lions had the ball with less than 10 seconds to go. Blaise Staab grabbed the rebound and kicked it ahead to Brian Barbour, who was fouled going to the basket.

Barbour sank the front end of the one-and-one and made the second with 4.2 seconds to go, tying the contest at 59.

Penn called timeout and inbounded underneath its hoop. Cartwright dribbled quickly up the near sideline and called another timeout with 1.5 seconds on the clock. Coming out of the timeout, the 6-3 Cartwright inbounded with the 6-9 Cisco guarding the ball.

Cartwright floated a perfect lob pass near the hoop after two Columbia defenders went toward Rosen, who flashed toward the three-point line. Fran Dougherty then slipped through the screen to the hoop and laid it off the backboard with 0.5 seconds showing on the clock after Penn just grabbed a 61-59 lead.

Columbia called timeout with 0.5 seconds on the clock and had the ball underneath the Penn hoop. Ninety feet away, Cory Osetkowski fired a pass the length of the court but Cisco's catch and shoot attempt was off the mark as the Palestra faithful celebrated the win.

"Our guys battled," head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. "[Penn] drew up a great play on the sideline out of bounds and got us."

Lyles scored 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting to lead all scorers. Cisco finished with 12 points and six rebounds and Rosenberg added 10. Barbour was held to six points but dished out eight assists.

With Lyles playing him for the majority of the game, Rosen was limited to 5-of-16 shooting but still finished with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists. Rennard added 13 for Penn, which improves to 7-2 in the Ivy League with the win.

"We tried to make other guys beat us and they did," Smith said. "Rennard was a stud."

Columbia returns to action on the road at Yale on Friday, February 24 at 7 p.m. The game will be shown live on the YES Network.

NOTES:

Six of Columbia's seven Ivy League losses have come by a margin of five points or fewer ... Columbia's previous game with Penn also was decided by two points ... it was the Lions' first overtime game of the season and their first since last year's double-overtime game with Yale at Levien Gymnasium ... the game had eight ties and 16 lead changes ... Penn shot 50 percent from the field and 52.6 percent on its three-point attempts (10 of 19) ... Columiba shot 50 percent from the field after the first half and made five of eight three-pointers, eight of 17 in all ... Barbour has totaled seven or more assists in three of the last four games ... Crockett finished with nine points and averaged 10.0 points in the two games this weekend ... the Lions made 15 of 18 free throws and are shooting 80.6 percent during Ivy League play.